By: Vic Monaco
HIGHTSTOWN The borough will soon have a new ambulance following action by its political leaders this week.
The Borough Council on Monday gave final approval to an $89,000 bond ordinance to get the ambulance, which was recently ordered by Washington Township, the lead agency in the towns’ shared services agreement for emergency medical services. The action will allow the borough to reimburse Washington.
Councilman Larry Quattrone, who serves as liaison to the local volunteer First Aid Squad and is a mechanic by trade, said the borough’s 1994 model was once again on the shelf for repairs this week.
"I no more want to spend this money than anyone but that person with pain in their chest doesn’t want to hear we can’t pick them up," he said.
The new ambulance is a 2006 demonstrator with about 3,000 miles on it. Mr. Quattrone previously explained that that vehicle will costs about $48,000 less than a brand new ambulance.
Under a three-year deal struck in March between the two communities, emergency medical services are provided by Washington 24 hours a day, five days a week, and 14 hours a day three days a week. Hightstown volunteers work 10-hour shifts on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. The system has utilized one ambulance stationed in the borough and another in the township, and the two towns share another ambulance owned by the township, for backup.
In other business, the council approved a resolution granting a renewal of a cable television franchise for Comcast. The action followed public hearings at which time, according to the resolution, there was no evidence that the renewal should be denied.
The local Cable TV Committee has recommended a 15-year renewal because it would garner the borough the most amount of grant money from Comcast, somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000, according to committee chairman Curtis Crowell. The resolution does not include the length of the franchise but that information will be part of an ordinance to be approved in the near future.
The current deal with Comcast doesn’t expire until Jan. 15.
The council also OK’d a change order that adds $12,878 to the $402,780 cost of the third phase of downtown revitalization. Engineer Carmela Roberts explained that, among other things, the extra money would fund the replacement of a bad section of a sanitary sewer main on Mercer Street and an extension of curb, sidewalk and pavement repairs near the Hightstown Diner.
Borough Administrator Candace Gallagher said the new funding will come from previously approved bonding.

